I'd like to tell a story about what has happened here in Ames to help you
to advocate for broad rules in this bill.

You may have read in the newspaper that someone reported antifreeze being
dumped through an Ames storm drain a couple of weeks ago.  Here's what
happened.

A man was walking his dog in the Squaw Creek riverbed here in Ames on a
Tuesday evening.  He saw what looked and smelled like antifreeze gushing
out of a stormdrain, went home.  It was 7:45 when he called the DNR
emergency number.  The DNR called the Ames police department and asked them
to investigate.  At 8:30 an Ames officer went out to check it
out.  Although the man had given an accurate description of the location of
the stormdrain the DNR, the officer was unable to locate it.

On Wednesday morning the city of Ames went out and saw grey metallic
residue on the riverbed there, took a sample of the stormdrain effluent at
that time and sent it to the DNR for testing.

The next week the same Ames man went back to Squaw Creek, this time
starting far downstream and doing a fish count up to the stormdrain
area.  The same green effluent he saw before was coming out again.  This
time he was able to catch half a gallon of it.  The DNR refused to take the
effluent he found there, and, apparently, the same offender is continuing
to wash some noxious substance down Squaw Creek on, perhaps, a daily basis.

If the DNR were able to accept samples of such effluents from citizens,
there would be a greater likelihood that such events could be documented
and offenders identified.

Broad rules would benefit us all.

Peggy Murdock

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